Outlines Creative C.I.C.

Altens now has its very own legal wall!

Thanks to funding and support from ETZ Ltd we have opened a new legal wall on Hareness road – Aberdeen’s first legal wall south of the river Dee! 

In spring 2024 we were invited to a round table with lots of different cultural organisations working in Torry to discuss opportunities for creative activities. There we met some like-minded people who have lots of ambition and community spirit, but need support to turn their vision in to reality. We proposed a legal wall because something we have learned doing workshops with schools and groups all over Aberdeen is that it isn’t always possible for our workshop participants to get to Sunnybank or Mouthhooly if they are too far away. We have been looking for walls in different locations and this was our opportunity. 

We previously spoke about our workshop at Denis Law Legacy Trust’s family fun day. We gathered lots of views on whether a legal wall would be good for the area, where it might go, and how it might be used. We received lots of good feedback, so we decided to trial a temporary legal wall in Altens, to demonstrate such a space might work. 

This project has been funded by the ETZ Ltd Community & Coast programme and ETZ Ltd have been helpful in not only funding this project but also providing a temporary wall on, on Hareness Road. This was a huge help as we were able to make a bespoke space perfect for painting. It sits on the building site of the Energy Transition Skills Hub (ETSH), founded by ETZ Ltd, Shell UK and North East Scotland College, with support from the Scottish Government’s Just Transition Fund for the North East and Moray, which opens later this year. 

The wall was launched on October 19th with a full day painting session. We commissioned six artists to complete pieces on the wall: Airhead, Chaos, Molly, Skeps, Slave, and V2K. They absolutely smashed it out the park, creating pieces which really showcased the talent Aberdeen has as well as setting the standard for what a legal wall might be like. We spoke to POST ABDN about the project and what we hope to achieve (link to POST ABDN article).

We held a scribble wall workshop which was open to the public and met many new, fantastic artists. This was not only great fun, but helped us to understand what people think about street art and share more about what we do.

But the fun doesn’t stop there – since the launch we have held a workshop for NESCol students, where we refreshed the wall with a new collaborative mural. You Can Paint was inspired by the whole ethos of the legal wall: not only is everyone allowed to paint, but everyone CAN paint. It was great to introduce even more people to spraypaint, watch them develop their skills and techniques, and hear their ambitions to keep painting in the future!

If you want to try spraypainting be sure to visit the Altens Legal Wall!